The Cobar Cowboys senior representative cricket team has qualified for the Brewery Shield grand final after defeating Narromine by a massive eight wickets on Sunday.
Narromine won the toss and elected to bat first, but struggled to put up a competitive score, only managing 158 runs in 45.2 overs.
Lachlan Reid and Adam Davis were the top scorers for Narromine with 16 and 59 runs respectively.
Cobar’s bowlers Jason Hampel and Phillip Harley took three wickets each while Jacob King and Nabeel Rashid took two and one wicket respectively.
In response, Cobar’s opening batsmen Nabeel Rashid and Jay Egan got off to a good start, putting up 38 runs for the first wicket.
Egan continued his impressive performance, scoring 61 runs off 37 balls, including nine fours and two sixes. Jade Buckman and Jake Harbison combined at the crease to finish the job for Cobar, scoring 47 not out and 20 not out respectively, as Cobar reached the target of 159 runs in just 29.4 overs.
Cobar will play Gilgandra in the grand final at the end of the month in Gilgandra.
In the Twenty20 competition at home, Tilpa Bushies took on the Bourke District Cricket Association team (made up of Cobar players) in a thrilling match on Friday night at Ward Oval.
Bourke DCA batted first and were well-led by Mark Fraser, who made 17 runs off 14 balls (with two fours and two sixes), giving him a strike rate of 121.42.
Jed Noonan also contributed well with 20 runs off 16 balls, including two fours and a six.
Bourke DCA however struggled to build partnerships and they were eventually bowled out for 78 runs in 19.1 overs.
In reply, Tilpa Bushies got off to a slow start, with Jade Buckman being dismissed for just five runs.
Alec Fraser and James McClure tried to steady the ship but couldn’t build a big partnership.
Jacob King scored a quick-fire six runs, from a six, before being dismissed.
The innings was taken into hand by Matthew Nicholson (16 not out) and Robert Childs (5 not out) with their unbeaten partnership seeing Tilpa Bushies over the line with three overs to spare.
In the bowling department, Jacob King was the standout performer for Tilpa Bushies, taking two wickets for just 12 runs in four overs.
Robert Childs and Zac Broughton also chipped in with two wickets each.
For Bourke DCA, Mark Fraser and Anthony Mitchell took a wicket each.
Tilpa Bushies face the competition’s defending champions, Whackers, this Friday night in the Twenty20 grand final.
In the 40 Overs competition, Golf Club faced off against Empire Billy Goats on Saturday and the result was a nail-biting finish with Golf Club taking the win by 28 runs.
Golf Club batted first and set a total of 150 with Jake Harbison, who scored 48 runs and Jason Hampel, who contributed 34 runs, their top performers.
Jay Egan was the star performer with the ball for Empire Billy Goats, taking three wickets for 15 runs.
In the second innings, Empire Billy Goats started off on the back foot, losing early wickets.
Thomas Plater was the standout with the bat, scoring 39 runs.
However, the team total of 122 runs was not enough to chase down Golf Club’s score of 150, with Lakshmi Maddipati being the chief destroyer for Golf Club with five wickets for just 12 runs.
The two teams face each other again next Saturday in the grand final and, despite Saturday’s loss, Empire are tipped as the slight favourites.—contributed
